The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-06
THE RELATION OF Boo TO FREE
INSTITUTIONS
BY REV. E. L. Cong ]
pasadena. CALI

Extracts from an addre& on laying
the corner stone of the Pubic Library
at Pasadena, CAL.
If Sir William Hamilton]F vas right in
saying, "The greatest thinf on earth is
man; the greatest thing In man is
mind" then the greatest hing in the
universe is free man, am the great
est thing in free man is 4 free mind;
and the greatest thing in cree mind is
vigorous, noble emancipa ed thought,
flowing out to refresh al bless the
world. But the great cha bel for this
stream of vigorous, noble. nancipated
thought is literature. B31ks are its
banks, and it flows with aflByer widen
ing stream, until it spread out to-day
majestic as the great IF her of wa
ters.n
The books of the early world were
like the few small lakes tilt mark the
source of the Mississippi But the
books of these later generations are
like the great dikes Of the2lower Mis-
sissippi-miles in lengthz high and
strong to compass the mighty, on-fow-
ing, deepening stream Of thAught. The
Imperial Library at Paris Mas probably
100000 volumes, or nearly B7, 900 acres
of printed paper. 1t reqnires forty
miles of book shelves to hold the 700 900
volumes of the Library of3the British
Museum, yet the largest library does
not contain one-fourth Of the books
published. Add to this The million
volumes that issue annually from the
press of Germany alone, and the vast
acreage of newspapers that fly abroad
like the focking birds of Sntumn, and
we see what majestic, mikhty stream
is this river of thought.
If we trace this river from its source
to its outlet, we shall find he Relation
Of Books to Free Institutions. The
sources of great thoughts are up near
the mountain top, among thegreat think
ers of Gods truth. These thoughts
flow down to the broad plains of human
life below, to nourish and ifrigate the
blossoming and fruiting thought of
humanity. Books bring hose great
thoughts down in crystal purity to the
fields Of humanity and pipe them to
every thoughtful brain of man.
The Decalogue was borneko Moses in
the solitude of the mountaidtop, where
his thought was in comn1tnion with
the infinite thought of God. 1t was
written on leaves of stone and became
the law of an historic race. The Son
of Man caught the living waters as they
trickled from the Rock of Eternal
Love and Truth; they filtered through
his soul, were gathered into the Bible
Reservoir, and thence have flowed
through the ages as the glad gospel of
Eternal Love. Homer and David and
Virgil sang their songs of conflict, of
heroism, of peace and love. Books
have brought those songs to US, and
they carry more inspiration to our souls
than to the little group who gathered
by the way side to hear the wandering
minstrel sing his lay. Books, therefore,
are the bodies in which immortal
thoughts live and work. When thus
clothed, they become servants of God,
and ''go about doing good"
The greatest truths, the best invent
ions are disembodied spirits, while they
roam the trackless space of the schol-
ar's or the inventors brain. But when
clothed in language and embodied in
books, they walk among US, as true and
loving friends, and they become the
friend of man for all time. Books are
''great Natures stereotypes" that lock
men up in everlasting forms to serve
all generations. What would Sir Isaac
Newton be to this generation without
his "Principia." But it holds him in
a book and makes him teach all men
the mathematics of the universe.
So does the knowledge of the past take
form and the thinkers of all ages live
and become realities to every genera
tion. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius,
Horace and Dante, Shakespeare and
Milton, Longfellow, Lowell, Bancroft,
and Prescott, and the whole line of
great souls who have done the worlds
thinking, come into our homes and stay
with us, living characters. They come,
not simply as guests, but we are their
guests. They entertain US, they sing
to us the songs of the ages and read us
the history of the world. They amuse,
instruct, inspire and comfort US with
their noblest thoughts. Dickens and
Thackeray and Humboldt and the
saints and sages of the mighty past are
mine, with all their history and immor-
tai work, and on my shelves await my
bidding, because they are embalmed in
books for the worlds higher life.
But books embody and embalm insti-
tutions as well as men. Literature is
the storehouse for the thinking of the
world, and from this storehouse we
build the institutions of men. Plato
gathered wisdom from all experience
into bfo r,oaofar mind ond fharo raaOIvcd